History
The Committee on Urban Conditions Among Negroes was founded in New York City on September 29, 1910 by Ruth Standish Baldwin and Dr. George Edmund Haynes, among others. It merged with the Committee for the Improvement of Industrial Conditions Among Negroes in New York (founded in New York in 1906) and the National League for the Protection of Colored Women (founded in 1905), and was renamed the National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes.
In 1918, Eugene K. Jones took the leadership of the organization. Under his direction, the League significantly expanded its multifaceted campaign to crack the barriers to black employment, spurred first by the boom years of the 1920s, and then by the desperate years of the Great Depression.
In 1920 the organization took the present name, the National Urban League. The mission of the Urban League movement is "to enable African Americans to secure economic self-reliance, parity, power and civil rights."
In 1949, Lester Granger was appointed Executive Secretary and led the NUL's effort to support the March on Washington proposed by A. Phillip Randolph, Bayard Rustin and A. J. Muste to protest racial discrimination in defense work and the Armed Forces. During the African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968), Granger prevailed in his insistence that the NUL continue its strategy of "education and persuasion".
In 1961, Whitney Young became executive director amidst the expansion of activism in the civil rights movement, which provoked a change for the League. Young substantially expanded the League's fund-raising ability- and made the League a full partner in the civil rights movement. In 1963, the NUL hosted the planning meetings of A. Philip Randolph, Martin Luther King, Jr., and other civil rights leaders for the March on Washington. During Young's ten-year tenure at the League, he initiated programs such as "Street Academy," an alternative education system to prepare high school dropouts for college; and "New Thrust," an effort to help local black leaders identify and solve community problems. Young also pushed for federal aid to cities.
In 1994, Hugh Price was appointed to the League's top office at a critical moment for the League, for Black America, and for the nation as a whole.
In 2003, Marc Morial was appointed the league's eighth President and Chief Executive Officer. Morial has worked to reenergize the movement's diverse constituencies by building on the strengths of the NUL's 95-year-old legacy and increasing the organization's profile both locally and nationally.
Read more about this topic: National Urban League
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